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WASHINGTON — It was just a year ago that my husband and I were waiting in line at the Mary, Queen of Heaven parish fish fry in Erlanger when Thomas Massie came through the line, shaking hands and asking for votes. My husband was struck by how normal Massie, then the Lewis County judge-executive, seemed.

When I traveled to Washington last week on a lobbying trip with local business leaders, I was curious to see if now-Congressman Massie was still that nice, normal guy who took the time to meet us that day and later send me a handwritten note.

After four months in Congress, I expected him to have become A) jaded by Washington, or B) overly political and spouting party orthodoxy at every turn.

I found neither. In fact, Massie actually seems to be enjoying himself.

How many members of Congress, having been given an office numbered 314, would put a small white dot between the three and the one on the placard outside their door and turn it into a math joke?

(Pi, or 3.14, is the number of times a line drawn straight across a circle would wrap around the circle itself; Massie, 42, is an engineer and MIT grad.)

“That shows the guy doesn’t take it too seriously: he has a sense of humor about it,” said Fort Mitchell attorney Rick Robinson, a legislative aide to former congressman Jim Bunning during the 1990s.

The business and political leaders on the lobbying trip didn’t quite know what to expect of Massie when they arrived in Washington, but they left impressed on a number of levels.

“He has really been learning, and he is a very eager student. And he seems open and willing (to learn),” said Steve Stevens, president of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, which has organized the annual lobbying trip to Washington for more than 20 years.

During the two-day trip, Massie gave our group his most precious commodity: time. He spoke for more than half an hour at a private luncheon, spent two hours at a reception at the Japanese embassy and made sure to drop by just to say hi during a visit with his chief of staff.

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“Thomas clearly went out of his way to make sure he spent as much time with us as he could,” said Robinson. “To put yourself in a position where you can do those things, to make that kind of time commitment to a group over a two-day period, is nearly an impossibility in Washington for a member as they try to meet with all their constituents in town and then go to committee meetings, go to votes on the floor.”

On a personal level, Massie told jokes (real-person jokes, not those canned, politician-needs-a-polite-laugh jokes), gave honest assessments of Washington and the political landscape, answered questions with actual candor, and most importantly, listened. He didn’t pretend to know everything, which is probably the most refreshing thing about him.

Massie has been dubbed “Mr. No” for the number of “no” votes he casts in Congress, and his critics say that hurts his ability to be effective for Northern Kentucky. But he is working for the region in other, less obvious, ways.

Most freshman members of Congress covet a seat on one of the so-called “A” Committees – Appropriations, Armed Services – that can draw big campaign contributions from lobbyists. Massie, however, wanted Transportation & Infrastructure, a “B” Committee, because he felt it would allow him to do the most good for Northern Kentucky and would be the one area where he could in good conscience advocate for more federal spending.

Massie also is learning how to make the office work for him: Once he realized that staffers from federal agencies won’t say no when a member of Congress asks for a meeting, he began meeting with federal transportation experts to learn everything that he can about the $2.5 billion Brent Spence Bridge replacement and, more broadly, the federal funding structure for such projects.

He doesn’t have any answers yet, but he and his staff are willing to learn: “How can we be most effective in helping you on this issue?” Chief of Staff Hans Hoeg asked our group.

“What we’re looking for is a champion,” came the reply.

During my brief time in Washington, it was clear that Massie is taking the time to learn how Washington works – he offered a detailed lesson in how members of Congress game the system to pad their voting records – as well as how and where he can be most effective.

And I won’t be surprised to see him back on the Northern Kentucky fish fry circuit next year. ■